Mudbath's latest cruel sounding blackened sludgy Post-core venture sways and blasts along with a good deal of atmosphere.

'Corrado Zeller', Mudbath's previous effort, was as much a fascinating piece of work as it was frightening. Fascinating because of its avant-garde sounding title and strange dichotomy between the genial, soupy looking artwork and the hellish music therein. Frightening because...well, listen to it. It had the slightly off kilter bent and slower paced nihilism of Wreck of the Hesperus coupled with the spite and repetitive battery of Rorcal's more maniacal output, all wrapped up in a suitably rough sounding production.

'Brine Pool' is a somewhat different beast however. Not entirely, but it does appear that the band got some of whatever it was they wanted to get off their chest last time round, leaving them free to refine, diversify, and also whip soundly into shape, their own peculiar brand of sludgy Doom. Whereas 'Corrado Zeller' was mostly about a glaring bleakness and unrefined anguish, 'Brine Pool' is far more focused and tailored. A quick glance at the song titles and track lengths will tell you that. It also has more of a polished sound to it.

The musicality of the French quintet has clearly begun to flourish as well, but despite this and a small attempt at toning things down a little, you can rest easy that 40 Watt Sun this most assuredly is not. Mudbath will still take a musical cheese grater to your face. They'll just do it far more stylishly and with a lot more skill his time. You might even thank them for it.

Overall, 'Brine Pool' is a cruel sounding hybrid of 'Post-core' and 'Black' metal which sways and blasts its way along with a good deal of atmosphere. One element of Mudbath's delivery that hasn't been altered are the harrowing vocals, which shriek passionately over the thumping instrumentation. Also evident is the fact that the band clearly need to come up for air now and again, and the quieter breakdowns and song intro's give them, and us, some interesting respite from the requisite mosh-friendly barrage.

If you were to throw various members of Gloson, Process of Guilt and Northless into a shabby old rehearsal space and leave them to it, 'Brine Pool' might well be the rather excellent result of their labours.